2016 Reddit, Inc. Transparency Report

January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016

Reddit compiles its Transparency Reports to ensure that we provide you with as much information as we can about the requests that we receive for your user information, or that ask us to remove your content from the platform.

This is the third year that Reddit has published a Transparency Report (past reports can be found here). The 2016 Transparency Report provides some new data, such as information about Non-Governmental Requests and Copyright Removal Requests.

Disclaimer: All reasonable care has been put into compiling the information provided in this report, however, given the volume of requests, our report may not be 100% accurate.

Governmental Requests for User Information

This section summarizes requests, from US and foreign governments or law enforcement authorities, to produce private user account information.

In accordance with our Privacy Policy, Reddit provides notice to the relevant user whenever we receive legal process that requires us to produce information, unless we receive a valid non-disclosure order prohibiting disclosure.

For more information about the different types of US legal process, refer to “Types of Domestic Requests” in the 2015 Transparency Report.

Compliance Trends

In 2016, Reddit received 170 requests to disclose user account information from US and foreign law enforcement authorities, a 73% increase over the requests received in 2015. The overall number of users affected by these requests decreased slightly, while the percentage of requests on which Reddit produced user account information increased slightly. (For clarity, a user account was “affected” if private information about the account was produced to law enforcement.)

The figures below do not include Preservation Requests, which do not require Reddit to produce user account information.

2014

2015

2016

Number of requests for user account information received

55

98

170

Percentage of requests where we produced some / all of the requested user account information

58%

60%

62%

Number of users affected by the production of user account information

78

142

137

Detailed Report

This report is split into four sections, reflecting the main categories of requests Reddit receives:

In 2016, Reddit received 131 requests for private user account information from federal and state law enforcement in the United States.

Subpoenas

Court Orders

Search Warrants

Emergency Requests

Misc.

Total

Number received

69

8

32

19

3

131

Percentage of total requests received

53%

6%

24%

15%

2%

100%

Number (Percentage) of requests where some / all of the requested user account information was produced

60 (87%)

8 (100%)

30 (94%)

3 (16%)

0 (0%)

N/A

Number (percentage) increase / decrease over number received in 2015

+25 (+57%)

-2 (-20%)

+24 (+300%)

+4 (+27%)

+3 (N/A)

+54 (+70%)

Reddit experienced a significant increase in the number of search warrants in 2016, with slighter increases in the number of subpoenas and emergency disclosure requests.

The 3 miscellaneous requests noted above were requests for information made by law enforcement that were not a Subpoena, Court Order, Search Warrant or Emergency Disclosure Request. As these requests were not in the form of valid legal process, Reddit did not produce user account information in response.

Non-United States Requests

In 2016, Reddit received 38 requests for user account information, by way of requests for information and Emergency Disclosure Requests, from Foreign Law Enforcement.

Foreign Requests for Information

Foreign Emergency Requests

Total

Number received

19

19

38

Number (percentage) of requests where some / all of the requested user account information was produced

0 (0%)

3 (16%)

N/A

Number (percentage) increase / decrease over number received in 2015

+5 (+36%)

+12 (+171%)

+17 (+81%)

Below are the countries from which the above foreign requests for information (excluding emergency disclosure requests) originate:

Country

Number of Requests

Australia

4

Canada

1

Germany

4

Greece

1

Malta

1

Singapore

2

Sweden

1

United Kingdom

5

TOTAL

19

Real-Time Monitoring Orders

In 2016, Reddit received one order to conduct real-time monitoring of the frequency of a Reddit user’s communications, in the form of a Pen Register / Trap and Trace Order. A pen register is “a device or process which records or decodes dialing, routing, addressing, or signaling information transmitted by an instrument or facility from which a wire or electronic communication is transmitted, provided, however, that such information shall not include the contents of any communication . . .” 18 U.S.C. § 3127(3). Reddit complied with this order.

Emergency Disclosure Requests

In 2016, Reddit received a total of 38 Emergency Disclosure Requests from US and Foreign Law Enforcement authorities, an increase of 16 requests over the number received in 2015. Reddit disclosed user account information in response to 6 (16%) of the Emergency Disclosure Requests received.

Country

Number of Requests

Number of requests where some / all user account information was turned over

Number of user accounts affected

Australia

1

0

0

Canada

7

1

1

Germany

3

1

1

Greece

2

0

0

Italy

1

0

0

United States

19

3

3

Sweden

1

0

0

United Kingdom

4

1

1

TOTAL

38

6

6

Preservation Requests

In 2016, Reddit received 41 preservation requests, an increase of 21 over the number of preservation requests received in 2015.

Reddit preserved user account information in response to 34 (83%) of the requests that we received.

Country

Number of Requests

Number of requests complied with

Australia

1

1

Canada

4

4

Germany

1

0

Philippines

1

1

United States

34

28

TOTAL

41

34

Non-Governmental Requests for User Information

In addition to receiving legal process from governmental entities, Reddit also receives requests for information from non-governmental parties, such as civil litigants and criminal defendants. These requests often take the form of civil subpoenas duces tecum, criminal defense subpoenas and/or court orders.

Generally, non-governmental parties may only obtain non-content information about a user and not the content of any communications of a user. This means that, subject to other objections, Reddit may be required to produce information such as:

incoming IP address logs, username, length of service, services used, any other subscriber identity (such as an email address), and payment information, in response to a subpoena (“Subpoena Information”); and

message headers, device/browser information, in addition to the Subpoena Information, in response to a court order.

Depending on whether the request relates to a Federal or State court matter, Reddit can make a number of objections, many of which are procedural (for example, if the request is too broad or burdensome). However, Reddit mainly focuses its attention on substantial constitutional objections regarding First Amendment rights, such as the rights to free and anonymous speech and expressive activity, to associate with others, and to discuss ideas.

2016 Non-Governmental Requests

In 2016, Reddit received 6 requests from non-governmental entities for private user information. We provided user information in response to 2 (33%) of those requests, as they were legally valid and the litigants were able to resolve our objections.

Reddit objected to the remaining 4 requests for the following reasons:

Request 1:

Reddit received a subpoena from a state court matter in Portland, Oregon.

Reddit objected to this subpoena for procedural reasons (the subpoena did not originate in California, which is where Reddit operates) and for substantive reasons (the subpoena requested the content of communications of a user, which civil litigants cannot compel Reddit to disclose in response to a subpoena or court order).

Request 2:

A litigant issued a subpoena to Reddit seeking his or her own account information.

Reddit advised that the user could request that Reddit provide them with their own information directly. The litigant subsequently withdrew the subpoena.

Request 3:

A band’s record label filed a petition in a New York Court to order Reddit to turn over the information about a Reddit user who had made a particular post, as well as the information of users who had the same IP address.

According to the petition, the user had posted a link to a song which had not yet been officially released.

Reddit objected and argued that the petition was an “impermissible fishing expedition” to confirm whether the label had an actual claim against the Reddit user.

The label subsequently withdrew its petition against Reddit, and we were not required to disclose information on the user who posted the link.

Request 4:

A company (Company A) issued a subpoena to Reddit seeking private account information about a user who made a post on Reddit that was critical of a company related to Company A (Company B).

The post was based in fact and expressed the user’s opinion about Company B.

Reddit objected to the subpoena, including on First Amendment grounds, and Company A filed a motion to compel Reddit to produce the user’s information.

Reddit fought the motion and the Court ruled that Reddit was not required to produce the user’s information.

Requests for Removal of Content

This section summarizes requests received from governments and other parties to remove or to block access to content appearing on Reddit.

Foreign Requests for Removal

2014

2015

2016

Number of foreign government requests received

0

53

21

Number (percentage) of requests where we blocked content from IPs originating from that country / taken down

N/A

11 (21%)

21 (100%)

In 2016, the number of foreign government removal requests decreased by 60%.

Country

Number of Requests

Number of Requests where content was blocked from IPs / taken down

What was affected?

Russia

15

15

1 post

Turkey

6

6

1 post, 5 subreddits

Total

21

21

2 posts, 5 subreddits

Russia - We received one request (and 14 duplicate requests) to remove content from the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor), in conjunction with the Federal Drug Control Service, with respect to a post which allegedly "contains appeals to mass riots, extremist activities or participation in mass (public) actions held with infringement of the established order." The content was blocked from Russian IPs.

Turkey – We received 6 requests for the removal of one post and 6 subreddits which contained material that fell under the scope of “obscenity” in the Turkish Criminal Code which, in turn, constitutes grounds for a website to be blocked under the Turkish Internet Law. The post and subreddits were blocked from Turkish IPs.

Requests for Removal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Reports received of alleged copyright infringement and any counter notices that are received from the users that posted the content on Reddit.

Reddit removes content in response to valid requests for removal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). For a request to be valid, it must comply with the statutory requirements outlined in the DMCA. Requests can either be sent to us via our webform or otherwise as outlined in our user agreement.

Each DMCA takedown notice is reviewed carefully and, in circumstances where content is actually hosted on our servers, we assess whether the existence of the content on Reddit can fall under an exception, such as “fair use” of the copyrighted material. If we believe that the existence of the content can be defended or falls under an exception under copyright law, then we may request further information from the requesting party that will assist us in our review.

As briefly discussed in the 2015 Transparency Report, we directed much effort towards accurately recording the volume of requests received. Reddit is therefore pleased to be able to provide you with some information about the DMCA requests received last year.

In 2016, Reddit received approximately 3294 copyright removal requests.

Reddit was required to remove content from the platform in response to 610 of the above requests (19%). No counter notices were received from the users that had posted the allegedly copyrighted content. As such, no content was required to be restored in 2016.